Watched SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch today

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It was the most awesome thing I have seen in a very long time. When the two booster rockets did their synchronized landing at the Cape, it was mind boggling. No word yet on the water landing, but unlike the song, 2 out of 3 in this case is still freakin amazing. They didn't just hit a home run, it was like every batter in the first game of the World Series hit a home run every time they came to bat.

Any you have to admire Musks style if nothing else. We now have an electric car tooling through space on its way to Mars.... With a dummy in a space suit in the drivers seat, and 'Don't Panic' on the dashboard display.

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SpaceX is so fun to watch, they're pumping out these launches left and right. I can't wait to see them progress over the next decade, Mars isn't too far away.

Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

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SpaceX is so fun to watch, they're pumping out these launches left and right. I can't wait to see them progress over the next decade, Mars isn't too far away.

Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

I agree that crap should be funded through investors and donations.

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Say this space race is a waste next time you fire up Google maps, the GPS in your airplane, or get an accurate forecast for a cross country flight. Sure money could probably better spent elsewhere but that could be said of pretty much anything that has multi-billion dollar budgets and government involvement. I do agree that it's sad that some of societies greatest technological advances have come out of military advancement, aviation being a prime example.

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SpaceX is so fun to watch, they're pumping out these launches left and right. I can't wait to see them progress over the next decade, Mars isn't too far away.

Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

I disagree completely Ed. Space exploration has given us more things than I can even begin to enumerate. Those medicines that you are getting now? Space. The Cat Scan, MRI and PET scanners to find those things that need killing? Space. Better forecasting so we can better grow the crops needed to feed the vast population this earth now supports? Space. Have we had a major war since space exploration began? No. There was 20 years between WWI and WWII. Been 80 years now. And on and on and on.

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SpaceX is so fun to watch, they're pumping out these launches left and right. I can't wait to see them progress over the next decade, Mars isn't too far away.

Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

I disagree completely Ed. Space exploration has given us more things than I can even begin to enumerate. Those medicines that you are getting now? Space. The Cat Scan, MRI and PET scanners to find those things that need killing? Space. Better forecasting so we can better grow the crops needed to feed the vast population this earth now supports? Space. Have we had a major war since space exploration began? No. There was 20 years between WWI and WWII. Been 80 years now. And on and on and on.

Mark

And, It is probable that we could have made even more advances in Medicine and other fields if we hadn't wasted so much money on space trips....

80 years between wars? Well, maybe that long since we dropped an A-bomb, but tell that to the families of 33,000 killed in Korea and 58,000 killed in Nam, and how many now killed in Iraq, Afgan wars? I don't think we have ever NOT been at war since Space exploration began in the 1950's!

Just saw that there is a water-shortage & drought in Cape Town, South Africa - How many Rocket $s would it take to solve that problem? How about rebuilding some islands with Rocket $s? How much pollution does a Zillion gallons of rocket fuel make in the air we breathe? Does it cause the ice to melt and seas to rise?

I will stop - wish I could just hook up the old mules to the wagon and mosey down a dirt road - With no sounds of Rockets and Nukes overhead! ;<) EDMO

Edited 7 February by EDMO

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Ed, in the history of war, Korea and Nam were barely blips. No disrespect to those that served, but compared to our long history of war, they were barely border skirmishes. The Normandy invasion alone had 53,000 killed on just the allied side. Iwo Jima, a little island with no use other than as an air base, had 26,000 marines killed. The Napoleonic wars had over 3 million killed, with some estimates of civilian casualties of an additional 2-3 million.

Without space, I can say with 100% certainty we would have had fewer advances in Medicine. The basic science that has driven almost all of the advances of the 20th and 21st cenuturies was funded by the space race.

No amount of money can fix the short sightedness and selfishness of people. The water shortage and drought in South Africa is a foreseeable event that was ignored while money and time was spent elsewhere. We'll see the same in California before long. Building huge cities in deserts is never going to turn out well, no matter how much money is spent.

If you want to talk about wasted money, money spent on supporting those in our society that have no desire to support themselves would fund WAY more than has ever been spent on space. I have no issue supporting those without the ability to support themselves (disabled, etc), but too much money goes to those that just don't want to.

Mark

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"If you want to talk about wasted money, money spent on supporting those in our society that have no desire to support themselves would fund WAY more than has ever been spent on space. I have no issue supporting those without the ability to support themselves (disabled, etc), but too much money goes to those that just don't want to."

Mark

Hope you include, "The best politicians that money can buy" in that. Maybe we should have bought Siberia instead of Alaska - then we would have a place to send the parasites and useless! ;<) EDMO

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Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

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Why in hell waste all this money on Mars? We cant even manage to feed the ones on Earth! Money would be better spent on trying to find cures for failures here. All Space programs have done nothing but spend our money to give the world ICBMs and NUKES! Do we really need another planet to go to when we destroy this one? EDMO

Wonder how many $$$ NA$A spent to "Toot their own horn" with that bragging? Sounds just like TV Commercials we watch every day - "My product is the best, and cures all ills"! NA$A had to BS to get our money! Probably could have been done cheaper without them! EDMO